Chapter 17
SEVENTEEN
LANA
T he days after my fight with Cole pass slowly. I barely leave my room, not wanting to see him or anyone else. Not even bothering to attend classes.
I don’t actually need classes, since I technically already completed my…
degree last year. These students think their private education is the best of the best, but it’s nothing compared to what I grew up around.
Only, that isn’t my life anymore. I’m just expected to go on the run for now and cultivate myself to fit in with normal people, when I’m the furthest thing from normal you can get.
It’s been six months since everything went down and my dad ended up losing his life to protect my own.
That was just my dad, though, always putting himself on the line and in danger for me.
Ever since he laid eyes on me at the age of three, he looked out for me, took me under his wing and treated me like his own.
We may not have shared blood, but we were family in all the ways that mattered.
And now, I’m alone in this godforsaken world with no one to turn to, no one to confide in, and it’s starting to take its toll.
I have Uncle Dare, of course—sorry, the dean— but things aren’t the same anymore.
Hell, I’ve never really had friends my own age, since everyone in the academy was older than me when I joined, and then I just became that anomaly that lived there.
When everyone else would go home to their families on breaks, I was the one who stuck out.
No one wanted to get too close to me out of fear of my father, and I really don’t blame them.
And then there’s also the fact that I was the only girl… that didn’t exactly help things.
I’d always had my dad there to talk to when things got too much, but now I have to try and navigate it on my own. I’m still not even sure where I’m going to go when I’m done with Blackwater.
I always thought he was paranoid, like he was planning for doomsday. Only, doomsday actually came. Now I’m here, trying to claw my way out of the aftermath, and the longer I stay here, the less likely I am to make it out alive.
If I was a man, I wouldn’t be in this position, because I’d have my father’s men behind me, but our connections ended the moment my dad took his last breath.
Fucking misogynistic assholes. There have only ever been two people who’ve ever seen me as an equal.
One is dead, the other is the dean of my new hell.
I was starting to think that the threat might have died down, since it’s been a few days since someone tried to kill me, but of course not. The moment I got up this morning to get a coffee and noticed an envelope had been pushed under my door, I knew it was just wishful thinking.
Inside was an invitation to tonight’s party at the club just off campus, which will probably have full attendance from the students—plus, there was a threat to blow the place if I don’t show up .
My head pounds in rhythm with the music as I step inside the club.
A quick scan of the room confirms what I knew already, basically every student from Blackwater is here.
After speaking to Dare, I decided to skip the black pants and sweater I’d usually wear when walking into this type of situation and actually decided to dress up for this shit show of a party.
One look around the room and I know I blend in.
I’m wearing a tight-fitting little black dress, donned with my leather jacket and a black mask that covers half my face.
There’s an array of differently dressed people tonight, all wearing masks.
It’s the week before Halloween, yet this place decided to throw a party tonight.
A masked party of all things, like the party goers won’t get enough of that next week.
I stick to the corners of the room, my eyes scanning for anyone who looks out of place. Feeling eyes on me, I look up to the balcony that overhangs the dance floor where I’m standing—only it’s not whoever left me the note that’s staring down at me.
Of course, it isn’t.
Cole stands wearing all black, a mask discarded in his hand. His sharp jaw tics as he swirls his drink around in his other hand, eyeing me curiously with his head tipped to the side, probably wondering what I’m doing here, since this is no doubt the last place he expected to see me.
I can sense the moment he’s about to move towards the stairs to approach me, and I subtly shake my head. He needs to stay far, far away from me tonight.
“Don’t,” I mouth to him, and his brows wrinkle in confusion.
I huff. Of course, the pretty boy is used to doing whatever he likes, and the glare I send him should be warning enough to stay where he is.
Though, it’s not like he has a habit of listening to a thing I say.
I decide not to risk it, slipping between a group of people and out of his eye line. No need for him to get any more mixed up in my shit than he already has been.
I get as far as the corridor for the bathrooms by the time I feel a hand on my shoulder, and I grunt in irritation, about to turn around and ream him out for following me when a bag is placed over my head and two people grab me from each side, marching me away from the blaring music and into the stillness of the night.
This could be fun.